Ocean Front Golf

The consequence of our spending all morning enjoying our rural farmhouse was that we had to chose between taking the surf highway to New Plymouth and looking for surf or going to the National Park and looking for waterfalls.

The beaches in this area are all black sand and we stopped at the beach in Patea to see an old shipwreck buried deep in the dark sand. Some of the kids just wanted to lay in the warm blanket of sand since it felt so toasty and cozy on their feet.

On our way out of the city we spotted a beautiful golf course along the ocean. Just out of curiosity we stopped to see if there was a clubhouse for rental clubs. The course was empty and there was a little box where “on your honor” you were to drop your $10 green fees. TEN DOLLARS for ocean front golf! What? Just as we were trying to find a way to get on the course a car pulled into the empty parking lot and a man got out and came over to talk to us. Apparently, he was one of the clubhouse owners and he offered us his own clubs to go and play since they didn’t have club rentals. Obviously, we weren’t going to let our kids use HIS clubs so Mike walked with him into their clubhouse and they found two older sets of clubs in a back room. Game on. For $20 he let the whole family have the entire course to ourselves. Where else can you have kids in flip flops swinging a 9 iron with unobstructed ocean views and sheep mowing the golf course? We love New Zealand.

That unexpected detour took the rest of the afternoon and we raced the storm all the way to New Plymouth. It wasn’t until we had walked from our beach cottage down to the wharf to eat fresh fish and chips (love Kumara fries) that the clouds burst. It POURED while we ate and we tried to time the downpour so that we would not look like we had just taken a shower when we returned to our cottage. Lily thought it was hilarious that we were all running in the rain.